How to pray, taking the Lord's prayer as a
pattern in particular, and passing on to talk about prayer in
general, and making various points about worship.

CONTENT

TBA.

OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

He refers to the Shepherd of Hermas (ch
16), as enjoying some authority as scripture in the church:

'Again, for the custom which some have of
sitting when prayer is ended, I perceive no reason, except
that which children give. For what if that Hermas, whose
writing is generally inscribed with the title The Shepherd,
had, after finishing his prayer, not sat down on his bed, but
done some other thing: should we maintain that also as a
matter for observance? Of course not. Why, even as it is the
sentence, "When I had prayed, and had sat down on my
bed," is simply put with a view to the order of the
narration, not as a model of discipline. Else we shall have
to pray nowhere except where there is a bed! Nay, whoever
sits in a chair or on a bench, will act
contrary to that writing.'

In 15:1, he
describes some practises in prayer as superstitious, rather than reverent.

In 16:1, he
mentions the custom of sitting when the prayers are over, to attack it.

The title as given above has been added to the Codex Agobardinus in a
16th century hand. This MS contains only the beginning. The only other MS, Codex
Ambrosianus G 58 sup. (D), is a fragment with no title, but
does contain the missing end.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Unless otherwise indicated, details are from Quasten's Patrology,
2 (1955). See also Editions page and Critical
Editions page for more information.

[Note: I need to add some
biblio, from l'Annee Phil. for the years 1954-1974 and from CTC after that].